Metoprolol Withdrawal (Page 87)
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i've been taking metoprolol for several years as partial treatment for high blood pressure. through diet and exercise, i've lowered my BP to the point my doctor says drop the metoprolol.

i did, 3 days ago, and i'm soooo tired, dizzy, irritable, and my vision is blurred.

is this withdrawal? how long will it last?

i remember starting this medication was terrible to get used to. it appears that stopping it is just as bad.

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Dr. Joey, not to be critical of your contributions here, but every time I read one of your posts, I have to ask myself "what is he trying to accomplish here?" I just think it's time to personally ask you this question because the vast majority of us here are trying to deal with the notion of getting off Metoprolol (or perhaps similar beta-blockers), and your contributions don't really seem to directly address this problem, in my honest opinion. My wife has suggested that you might be a pharmaceutical company "plant" of some kind in order to sway others from believing that it's the drug that's causing these issues, but you don't really come out and say this, either. The fact is, the people here are having very REAL ISSUES that are directly related to the effects of Metoprolol, but I have yet to speak to a doctor who fully understands what's going on here. Tachychardia, anxiety, high blood pressure, high heart rate, heart palpitations, dizziness, headaches, etc., etc. are all symptomatic rebound effects with weaning and withdrawal from Metoprolol (or in my case while on the drug as well), and like so many other folks here, I've had the very same symptoms only to go to the ER a countless number of times to find that my heart or any other suspected health issues are just fine. I sincerely believe that this drug fouls up our "electrical" systems and/or central nervous systems in such a way that doctors have become clueless in regards to knowing how to treat it once it's discovered that it's not working for us. This thread has some pretty good history (over five years worth), and it seems pretty clear to me that the only proven way to rid ourselves of this nasty drug is to slowly wean ourselves off of it while eventually having to go cold turkey, all while going one step at a time while also tuning into what our bodies are telling us at any given moment. Unless you've experienced this problem first-hand, you'd have no idea as to how horrifying of an experience it really is.

With that being said, I really see this thread as a support group where our contributions are to hopefully posted in order help and aid one another in ridding ourselves from this drug once and for all. Sorry for the rant, everybody, but I personally don't get where this Dr. Joey guy is coming from. Thanks!

JR, to answer your question about "how long it takes" to get off this drug, everybody is different. It took me about four weeks once I went cold turkey, but I had a setback for a few days about a week after I began feeling normal again. Since then, however, I've been feeling great! Some have needed a week or two while other have needed several months or more. The best advice I can give is to just hang in there. If you've already gone three weeks, you're well on your way! Wishing you the best!

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A comptent doc can't "assume" you have Tachycardia and visible symptoms of stress. That's what EKGs, Echos and other tests (non-invasive) are for. It asp is what Highly qualified shrinks and neurologists are. What you stated reflects the the unsatisfactory practice of medicine —"plain and simple".

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Hi, i have been of metoprolol for 3 weeks and still feel withdrawals . About how long does it usually take to feel normal again? Its getting better slowy but surely.

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Thanks Ladies!! Today heart rate is 107 just sitting and anxiety is high. Lauren, what do you add extra for protein? Do you feel it helps?

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DON'T GIVE UP!!! It's WORTH it to reclaim your life. :) Visiting this site daily really helps!!! Tons of water and Protein!

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Sandra it IS the meds. Try and think back to how you were before you started taking this stuff. You were ok then and will be ok again. If you are confident that you do not have a heart condition (I didn't) then you can be a little calmer riding it out. It's horrible I no longer have ANY anxiety, zero. It was 100% medicine. Just try and stay as calm as you can. Do whatever you can to calm yourself...herbal tea, theanine works fairly quickly ( i bought some "stress formula" by Sundown Naturals (L-Theanine). You can check online for drug interactions if you are taking anything else. I asked the doctor (the M pusher) about it and of course, he just laughed like "this won't hurt you" but won't work either. Then urged me to take Atavan. GOODBYE to him. The best thing is just ride it out if you can. I recall the bad days were usually just a day...and they got further and further apart. Take deep breaths. It helped me to write everything down and keep track of my BP and pulse rates. If you get into any dangerous zones, go to the ER. I went several times during the weaning process because I was scared and worried about my heart. I was fine every time. I didn't allow them to give my any drugs although depending on the ER doctor they had many suggestions, including "you should take Metoprolol" OMG!!!! Keep us posted on your progress. One day at a time and this will all be behind you.

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Cardiology is based on physical medicine (surgery) and pharmacological interventions, along with adjunct alternative treatments. His vitae looks good on paper. Good physicians don't attempt sell you products — for any reason other than lack of availability in general, and that usually only applies to Controlled Substances, and we usually can't get "shortage" medicines any more easily than your local pharmacist, so that leaves legit MDs/DOs out of that game. Derms do sometimes sell hard to find hair vitamins, but I never met one who tried to talk me out of a script for Retin-A in favor of buying something he had for sale. They usually only carry a few products aimed as hair loss prevention and, from what I see, women buy them much more frequently than men. Sometimes they also have for sale some especially good OTC acne preparations, although the best txs are Rx Only (except for Benzoyl Peroxide 5%). The medical community doesn't think very highly of these docs who are invested in your buying their products. f they found anything revolutionary, a major drug company would have bought the rights, did some R & D and applied to the FDA and put the product through a series of clinical trials.

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Thanks so much Anita! My anxiety is thru the roof today :( I keep thinking im gonna die the way I feel! I keep telling myself its just this stupid meds.

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Good for you Sandra! Stick with it! You can do it. I know it is a rough ride. I'm glad to hear that you are making progress. If you can take time to rest during the process it helps. I had lots of "bad days" where I just did the minimum and lay down trying to calm my heart. It is a scary time but your body will rid itself of this poison and begin to do it's own regulating. Drink lots of water to flush it from your body. I think it stores in the liver and is excreted in the kidneys so I drank water with fresh lemon juice in to speed up the detox process. I'm rooting for you!

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Same here Lauren. I had a great day yesterday. Felt somewhat normal. Today my heart is racing and I have a horrible headache and just feel terrible. I am about a week and a half completly off (third time trying to get off) I think im gonna hang on this time and try to make it.

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I was on M for 4 months total. max dose was 50mg time release. It took me at least 4 months to wean off and I have been completely off for 6 months. I still get the occasional palpitation but the BP spikes have stopped. The anxiety is now gone. It is absolutely worth getting off this poison no matter how long it takes. There is life after Metoprolol and it can be good. I am convinced that this drug screwed up the electrical system in my heart in it's attempt to "control" my heart rate. Had I know that this was what this drug did I would have never put one pill in my mouth. My heart is trying to recover and I am trying to help it be healthy. I am walking on my treadmill, eating better, taking lots of vitamin C and I can see improvement. I am getting out and living again after last year, in which I was disabled by this drug. I had problems getting on it, off of it and then the weaning process took months. Those of you struggling, keep going forward...there is an end.

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You're welcome, Lauren! If you've made it a month so far, you're almost there! I'm sure that we've all had our "off" days, too, but they'll become fewer and further between. Just hang in there!

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Four days of relative normalcy, and today I'm getting zapped. I'm off M for a month now, doc says to give it a few more weeks. She says this drug does NOT like to let go. It IS getting better, but the more real normal days I have, the more disappointing it is to suddenly have an off one. DEFINITELY not as bad as even 2 weeks ago. You DO feel like you are losing your mind, you are NOT, just push on. DRINK water, tons of it, and push Proteins. Bee and Jimbo, you checking in and reiterating things HELP those of is who follow in your footateps! THANK YOU.

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I'm a 62 year old male, walk a lot and ride a bike in summer. I had a minor heart attack in 2001 when I was 47 and afterward went on 200mg Metoprolol, 10mg Ramipril, and Atorvastatin. Four years ago my resting heart rate was down to 38 and I felt sluggish. I cut my Metoprolol dose in half to 100mg (no gradual reduction, just day one: 200mg then day two: 100mg) with no withdrawal side effects at all and only told my doctor about it four months later. He said as long as I was fine, just stick with the 100mg, so I did. Foodwise, I was eating way too much bread, jam and fruit juice, gaining weight. A couple of months ago I started a healthy diet (low FODMAPS diet, no soft drinks, no juices, no wheat/bread, no sweets, no jam/honey, no caffeine; more fruit, oatmeal, low-fat yoghurt, olives, tomatoes) and I've dropped from 200 pounds to 185 pounds. Half way through the diet I noticed my heartrate was down to 45bpm and my blood pressure was running at 95/50. For a few months I'd also been having arthritis-like pain in my hands and blurred vision. I researched Metoprolol side effects and decided to get off it entirely. Three weeks ago, I reduced from 100mg M to 70 the first day, then to 60 on day two and 50 on day three. I took 50mg for three more days, then dropped to 33 for two days, then down to 25 for two days, then 12.5 for two days, then zero. Every day around 1pm I would get a bit woozy-headed, but I found that if I ate something it would go away in an hour. I carried some M with me all day in case I needed a top-up dose, but never used it. I've been at zero dosage for five days now. I am going for walks but very slowly. I don't plan to go at my normal pace for another 10 days, just taking it easy to give my heart time to adjust. So far no withdrawal effects (the opposite, in fact. The daily afternoon woozy-head actually *stopped as soon as I stopped the Metoprolol. It was as if remaining on the small 12.5mg was contributing to the woozy-head: at zero dose it went away). Note that I'm still on Ramipril for blood pressure, which is now running about 115/55. No more blurry vision, no more arthritis-like hand pains at all. Feeling good about being off the M. It can be done. (My tip: carry some with you (for example, a matching dose of 12.5mg in later stages of weaning) so you can top up later in the day if you need it. It helps reduced anxiety about the process to know you are in control.)

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Thanks for the advice Jumbo! I certainly appreciate it!

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Sandra, I should probably add one more thing: since I'm basically semi-retired while running my own business as a one-man operation, I also had the luxury of shutting my business down for a few weeks so that I could take the time to get off this drug. I also had the luxury of having a daughter and a son in the area in the event I needed help, so I guess you could say that I had some sense of security while venturing into the weaning and withdrawal process. I honestly don't know how I could've done it if I had to work a regular job on a daily basis, not to mention the additional stress to go along with it. While I am by no means making an attempt to encourage you to go cold turkey, I would encourage you to look at all of the options available to you in order to make life as comfortable as it can possibly be if you're considering the notion of toughing it out. Just know that we're pulling for you........ :)

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Sandra, I certainly can't say what'll work for you, but after weaning for about five or six weeks or so, I finally reached a point where I just decided to tough it out cold turkey regardless of the withdrawal symptoms I'd have to endure. It wasn't easy, and I had some absolutely horrible days. I think I went to the ER about five times total throughout the entire ordeal, and two or three of those times occurred after I had gone cold turkey. After about three weeks into the withdrawal period I finally started to feel a bit better. Until then, I could hardly walk a single block without feeling as though I was going to have a heart attack. It wasn't until late into the fourth week that a day finally came when I actually began to feel normal again. I did, however, have a setback for a few days, but it was rather short-lived. My last dose of the "M" was on June 10th, and by mid-July I was feeling pretty good again. Other than a few miscellaneous heart palps and some slight chest pain on rare occasion, I've been feeling great ever since. I've gotten back into exercising regularly, and I'm not on a single prescription drug. This experience was by far the worst 10 weeks of my life, but somehow I managed to pull through. I have to admit that my heart aches for those who're still struggling, though, for I wouldn't wish this sort of thing on anybody. If anything, it actually angers me to no end that many in the medical profession write this off as if it's some sort of a passing problem or a psychological issue.

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I guess what frustrates me the most is how can I wean any slower? Im taking "dust" once a week to a week and a half. Do I just tough itout after that week and try to make it to two weeks then 3 etc? But same dosage since I cant go smaller?

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Jimbo. thank you... I don't mind helping but I am sounding like a broken record.. lol.. I think people should not take this drug lightly and take as much time as needed to wean off.. yes I wanted this stuff out of my system but my body wasn't responding to the normal weaning so I had to take longer. no big deal..

Oh; the crazy thing for me was that there was nothing wrong with my heart.. the doctor assumed that I had tachycardia and stress and of course they gave it to me for high blood pressure.. well where did they get the idea I had tachycardia and stress. I guess the (M) was on sale back then lol..... anyway; I had more palpitations when I was on the M and my blood pressure only went down a few points .. why bother taking the drug then?? so I said I am off this poison and I don't care what happens.. Our bodies in this group are very highly sensitive to chemicals. Doesn't that make sense?? so I started with the cq10, magnesium, L carnitine and Hawthorn; taurine and have not had one freaking palpitation for over a year. I walk a lot now and have lost a ton of weight.. my diet is raw foods for now and lots of water... and herbal teas.. there are days if I over eat carbs my heart will race just a bit.. nothing startling but I know its from sugar and carbs so I try to limit those now.. or have small things.. oh, I forgot to add that a bit of Himalayan sea salt in water and drink it down fast will stop palpitations and its safe. just try it out yourself...its amazing..

Also guys look up Dr. Stephen Sinatra. He is a natural cardiologist with some great youtube videos. {edited for privacy}.

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Bee, thanks for piping in here! I sincerely hope that those of us who have struggled with this drug can keep this thread alive and well by continuing to add our contributions for those who continue to struggle with it. I personally found that the struggle itself can add nothing but confusion and anguish once we first realize that we're having a serious problem, and none of the doctors I saw ever thought that Metoprolol was the primary root of my problem. In fact, as Dr. Joey has stated, a couple of my doctors even hinted toward the idea that I may have had a problem with my own psych and that it wasn't a problem with the drug at all. I just called "BS," for I knew only too well that it was the drug that was causing all the havoc in my system. The new people here just need to realize first and foremost that if they suspect that they're having a problem with this drug, that the chances are very good that it is indeed this poison that's fouling up our systems.

Sandra, of course, I'm no doctor, but from what I've experienced, I tend to think that the problems we're having with this drug are twofold: first, the drug itself, and secondly, it's our sensitivity to the drug. Some of us seem to be much more sensitive than others, but all of us here certainly seem to have a certain degree of sensitivity or we wouldn't be here. We may be in a minority for those who've needed to get off the drug at some point in time or another, but this thread alone is evidence enough for me to prove that many of us remain untreated and discarded by those in the medical profession, and for what possible reason? This drug is a very real problem for many of us. In my honest opinion, that can't be stressed enough!

In your case, Sandra, I'd strongly suggest that you listen to Bee and others who've needed to take longer periods of time in order to get off this drug. It took me over two months between weaning and withdrawal, but that obviously doesn't seem to be enough for some folks. I know exactly what you're talking about when speaking of taking "dust," too, for my last few doses were nothing but dust.....perhaps 2mg at the very most. At any rate, just know that we're all behind you and that 2016 will indeed be the year that you become free from this garbage drug once and for all.

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